


waiting on love ain't so easy to do

by theriverlea



Category: Love Island (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-22
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-19 09:15:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29624043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theriverlea/pseuds/theriverlea
Summary: AU: At a company outing, Norah had brought Noah back to her apartment for some after work fun. However, Noah is still dating his long term girlfriend, Hope and the reemergence of Lucas Koh from Norah's past is destined to cause more complications than Norah knows what to do with.
Relationships: Hope/Noah (Love Island), Lottie/Gary Rennell, Noah & Main Character (Love Island)
Kudos: 11





	waiting on love ain't so easy to do

Norah walked the length of the distance between her desk and the kitchen, clutching her mug in her hand, trying not to attract any attention. It was Monday morning, the first time she would be seeing him since what she had been referring in her head as ‘the incident’. She told herself to look forward, not to glance in his direction, but her eyes did not listen to her. His desk was empty, and she eased up. As she felt her shoulders relax, she turned into the kitchen and barreled into him. 

Noah. 

“Are you alright?” his voice broke the inner monologue that had been running in her head since Friday night. He pulled back and she could see in his face that he had asked before recognizing who had collided with him. “Oh,” his cheeks reddened. “Norah.” He smiled, slightly strained but she was impressed that it mostly looked sincere. “Hey.”

“Hi,” she said, stepping backwards and hitting another colleague who happened to be walking into the small kitchen. “Mondays, am I right?” she asked to neither of them in particular. Norah took a sharp breath in before looking to her left and taking a side step. “Sorry about that,” she said, holding up her mug. “Just looking to get some caffeine in me before I take anyone else out today.” She laughed, forcing herself to make the sounds. 

Noah nodded, “Cool. Well,” he said, pointing around her, “I’m going to get back to my desk. Nice to see you, Nor.” 

Norah widened her eyes and shook her head after he left. If she was going to make this work, she was going to have to act cool. Or at least normal. She would even settle for not entirely freak like. She looked up to see who had joined them in the kitchen and saw Bobby’s smiling face. “Hey Bob,” she smiled back at him.

“Smooth going, Norah,” he commented, nodding in the direction that Noah had gone. “Didn’t realize that Monday was that bad that you already had some aggression. Next time, I’d prefer you didn’t take it out on me or my lad out there.”

“Ha, ha, ha,” she replied, rolling her eyes. Norah reached for the pot, finding it empty. “What complete a-“

A throat cleared behind her. “I wouldn’t finish that thought if I were you, Miss. Bay.” 

“Wouldn’t dare to,” Norah cringed, hearing the voice of her supervisor behind her. Although Norah and Lottie had been friends prior to Lottie’s promotion, the relationship between them had grown stunted since Lottie had taken over Norah as a report earlier in the summer. “How was your weekend, Lottie?” 

“Fantastic, although not nearly long enough.” Lottie’s Australian accent peaked through. “Gary and I got a little Air B&B for the weekend. I was sorry to miss the party on Friday, how’d it go?”

Norah’s brain quickly flashed images to Norah as she searched for words to talk about how the party had been. “Great,” she said quickly, trying to erase the mental image of Noah undressing her that her brain had projected to her since it happened. “Everyone seemed to have a good time. No glasses were broken.”

Lottie laughed, “Must be a first for this group. Well, next time you all go out- I’ll invite Gary. I think everyone will really like him. He’s a builder, so he doesn’t feel quite comfortable with us finance people.”

“I hope you haven’t given him the impression that we were that kind of finance people?”

“I haven’t corrected him. I rather like him thinking I’m an important deal maker.”

The coffee maker sputtered and hot coffee started to stream into the pot.

“Well, see you back at your desk. Glad that asshole who took the last cup,” Lottie said, tapping her fingers against her full mug and smirking, “was nice enough to start the pot back up.”

When Norah made it back to her desk, managing to only spill a couple drops of hot liquid gold, her messenger was flashing. Norah looked around, trying to see if any of her coworkers were near before opening it up and finding herself disappointed that the sender was Bobby. Not that she was hoping for someone else. 

Bobby McKenzie: Front Desk called. You have a new hire starting?   
Norah Bay: News to me. Did you tell Lottie?  
Bobby McKenzie: Sure did. She told me to tell you.  
Norah Bay: … great. 

Norah picked up her phone, dialing down to the front desk. “Hi,” she said, “This is Norah Bay, I heard there is a new hire for Floor 13.”

“Yes,” the monotone response came.

She paused a beat, waiting to see if the front desk manager was going to continue. When they didn’t, Norah stuttered awkwardly. “Um, uh- can you send them up?”

“You have to come get him.”

“Oh,” Norah said, looking up from her desk to see Lottie behind the glass partition. “Sure, I’ll be right down.”

Lottie looked back, “Did I forget to tell the team we were getting a new joiner?”

Norah made a face, “Might have been helpful to know.”

“Well, now you do,” Lottie said, smiling sweetly back at her. “Go get him. He can have the desk behind you where Emily used to sit.”

Norah stood, straightening her skirt and made her way to the elevators. Due to the morning traffic (everyone took the start time of 9 as more of a suggestion), the elevators were taking a long time to come and gave her time to think about how the rest of the day was going to go. In her head, when she had ample time to plan this weekend, she thought she would message Noah, talk about how she was fine (totally fine) and not to worry about her at work because she was cool with a capital C. She would then ask about his weekend and they would move on with their lives. 

Except even that, in her head, was weird because her and Noah were not friends. And yet, he’s now seen more of her body than anyone else in the department or the bank. He had see more of her body than most of the world. And he had initiated it. And then, after it all went down, he had said no single word to her for the rest of the weekend. It wouldn’t have been weird, on a normal weekend, however he had seen her naked. Didn’t that warrant some kind of text?

As she exited the elevator, realizing she had forgotten her badge and couldn’t cross past the security gates, she cursed the day already. “Hey,” she shouted, over the noise of the morning commuters. “Hey!” 

The woman manning the security desk looked at her. 

“I’m here to pick up a new joiner,” she said, her feet firm on the ground. 

“Okay?”

“I forgot my badge upstairs so I- can you buzz him through?” She saw someone stand from one of the four seats that the company considered their waiting area. 

There was some grumbling but finally the glass panel slid open and the new joiner crossed over to her side. Norah looked at him, taking him in. “Oh my God,” she said, her first genuine smile of the day appearing on her face. “Lucas! You didn’t tell me you were working here?” She started to go in for a hug and then realized that they were still, in fact, at work.

“Norah,” Lucas said, taking her hand into his hand and giving it a warm squeeze. “I honestly forgot you worked here. I should have called in for a good word.”

Norah shook her head, “It wouldn’t have gotten you very far. How have you been?” 

Lucas Koh was a friend from University that Norah hadn’t seen since graduation. They were, though, in a couple of group chats together that were active when something big happened in one of their lives but she didn’t remember seeing that he was moving back, or that he had gotten a job at the same place she had been since they graduated. 

They caught up on the elevator ride up and as they approached the glass doors that separated the elevator to the floor, Norah remembered she was badge-less and had to embarrassingly knock on the door until Hannah took pity and swung it open for them. 

“You’ll be here,” she said, pointing to the desk behind her. Lucas put his stuff down and sat awkwardly down in the seat that made him look too tall (as though there was such a thing). “You can,” Norah said, as she knelt by his chair awkwardly and showed him a lever, “adjust it here. The girl who sat here before you was very small.”

“Norah,” Lottie’s voice carried through the glass partition. “What are you doing down there?”

Norah counted to five before standing and turning to her former friend and ally, “Just showing him how things work around here.”

“Could you show him useful things? Like how to do his job?” 

Norah smiled, knowing that six months earlier she would have taken the same comment as a joke. Perhaps Lottie meant it as a joke, however now with the power imbalance it just came off as mean. 

“Sure thing, boss,” Norah said through gritted teeth and sat in her own chair. “If you want to just swing over when you are ready, we can go through what we do and get you started.”

Despite training Lucas for the rest of the day, one eye was always looking out for her messenger to turn orange and for the chatter to be Noah. It, however, never happened. By 5 PM, she resigned herself to the realization that Noah was never going to say anything. That he was fine with what happened, fine with it being a one night thing and never acknowledging it. “Alright,” she said, turning to Lucas who looked like he was five minutes from taking a nap. “I know that was a lot of information and me chatting your ear off, but we’re done for the day. I have some things I need to finish up but you can-“ she stopped mid sentence as Noah, Ibrahim and Bobby walked by her area with their bags hanging loosely at their shoulders. 

“Oh wait, guys,” Bobby said, turning to look over to Norah. “Nors, we’re getting some drinks after work. Do you want to come?” 

Norah shrugged, “It’s Monday, Bobby.”

“Exactly. Need to start the week off right.” Bobby caught sight of Lucas and jogged the short distance over, “Hey man, I’m Bobby. That’s Rahim and Noah.”

“Hey,” Lucas said, giving a short wave. 

“We’re going to get a couple pints if you want to join.”

Lucas looked back at Norah who threw up her hands. “Fine,” Norah said, “I’ll go.” Her stomach did flips and she avoided looking over to Noah to register his reaction. 

“I’m in then,” Lucas said, shaking Bobby’s outstretched hand.

“Lottie, I know you are too good for us since you became supervisor but you are invited if you want to relive the glory days when you were still cool.” Bobby’s eye sparkled as he teased Lottie and Norah envied the playfulness that still existed between the two of them. He wasn’t Lottie’s direct report, so he didn’t have to deal with the new Lottie as much as Norah did. He did, however, have to deal with Norah’s constant complaints about Lottie’s new attitude when they were drinking so he knew the pain secondhand. 

“No, thank you,” Lottie said, typing loudly. “Some of us still have work to do.”

“Should have done it during the work hours like we did,” Bobby teased, laughing loudly as he headed out to the elevators where Rahim and Noah had already migrated. 

“We don’t have to go,” Lucas said, looking at Norah. “I don’t want to make you.”

“No,” Norah shook her head, “they’re my mates. We can go. I might not stay long but you can feel free.”

Lucas shook his head, “It’s only my second day tomorrow. I need to impress my coworkers and boss with my punctuality.”

Norah hurried through her final end of day things, sending a couple of emails before packing up her things in her backpack and nodded towards Lucas. “Ready?”

“Ready,” he said. 

On the short walk to the pub, Lucas and Norah caught up and Lucas told Norah about his time abroad and his previous work experience with his family that he decided wasn’t for him. Norah pushed open the door to the pub, finding the three boys easily as Noah and Rahim both towered over the rest of the crowd. Among the three was Chelsea and Shannon and a girl that looked familiar but Norah couldn’t place.

“Just in time,” Bobby cheered, lifting up his beer in celebration. “You just made it before Noah and Hope left for their date.”

Hope. 

Norah looked at the girl, who was smiling broadly and laughing at something Rahim said. Her stomach dropped and she stopped walking. Lucas looked at her, reading something on her face that the others didn’t seem to pick up, and grabbed her elbow to lead her to the group. 

Hope. 

Noah’s girlfriend. 

Norah wanted to sink into the floor and melt away. Instead, she shook off Lucas’s hand and smiled. “Hope,” she said, hoping her voice projected a confidence that she did not feel. “It is so nice to finally meet you, I’ve heard so much about you.”

With that, she finally let herself look at him. Noah’s face was unreadable, his hand resting lightly on his girlfriend’s shoulder. Before Hope could respond to Norah, Noah leaned his head down and softly said, “We should get going, babe.” If he was feeling any thing but confident, he didn’t betray any weakness. 

“Right,” Hope clapped her hands together. “Chelsea, Shannon, it was so nice to meet you. Norah, we’ll have to chat next time,” she said. “Bobby, Rahim, I’ll see you this weekend.” 

Noah put his hand on the small of her back and Norah tried not to react as they walked by her, his shoulder brushing hers on accident. 

When the two of them were out of the pub, Norah looked at Bobby and Rahim. “I thought,” she said calmly, “they were broken up.”

“They’re back together,” Bobby grinned. “Isn’t it great? Hope’s the best.” 

If Hope was the best, Norah thought, what did that make her? 

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to try something different by putting the characters into an office setting, but it might not work. Who knows?


End file.
